Dwarven Archway: Bones 5 Figures

     Over the past few months, I have been working on pieces from the pair of Dwarf King's Crypt Encounter Sets I have from the Bones 5 Kickstarter.  This past week I did the two "Archway" pieces.  

      I prepped these terrain pieces in the usual way, soaking them in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving them a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying them.  I then glued a pair of 80mm x 40mm steel bases under each one to give an underside that would stick to a magnetic storage surface.  The cavities in the underside of the arches were just a couple millimeters too short in length, so I ended up having to cut a couple notches in the underside to get the bases to fit.   I had to use a stacked pair of the steel  bases under each one so they would have the required depth to end up flush with the bottom of the arch.

     I then glued each archway to the top of a weighted prescription bottle.  (I forgot to take a "Before" shot of the arches, so we'll get right into the painting. 

     I began by painting both ahces entirely with Ceramcoat "Charcoal".  When dry, I gave both of them complete washes with Citadel "Nuln Oil" Shade.

     I let the wash dry, and then drybrushed the arches with, first,  Americana "Zinc", then Crafters Acrylic "Storm Cloud Grey".

     Lastly, I did a drybrush of both pieces with Americana "Grey Sky". The next day I gave both pieces a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.   The weather has been too wintery to do any spraying, so I wasn't able to give these their final Testor's Dullcote" varnish yet.    

     I'm pleased with how these turned out.  I was tempted to do something fancy, like making some of the runes glowing, but in the end I really just wanted them for plain pieces of terrain.  I added one of the Dwarf Zombies for scale. 

Chicken Swarm: Bones 5 Fan Favorites Figure

      Happy 2022 everyone!  Back before Christmas one of the last things I got painted was the "Chicken Swarm" figure from the Bones 5 Fan Favorites Expansion as a Christmas gift for a friend.  I didn't want to post it before Christmas for that reason; so now I thought I'd get it up on the blog

      I prepped the figure in the usual way, soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying it.  I then glued the figure to a 1" primed metal washer, using Aleene's Tacky Glue.  I then put the figure into my painting grip.   

     I began by painting the entire figure with Ceramcoat "White".  When this was dry, I gave the whole thing a coat of Citadel Contrast "Apothecary White".  When this was dry, I drybrushed the figure with Americana "Snow White". 

     I then painted the comb and wattle with Folk Art "Tomato Red", and after that I painted the beaks with Americana "Primary Yellow". 

     Next, I painted the shadow areas around the legs at the bottom, as well as the entire base, with Citadel Contrast "Wyldwood"; and when dry, I painted the legs with Americana "Antique Gold".  After that, I painted all the little eyes with Ceramcoat "Black".

     I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave the swarm a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.    Then, when  the varnish was dry,  I used some white glue to flock the bases.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed the figure with Testor's Dullcote".       

     This is such a fun figure, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out! It was an interesting challenge since, while it is basically a simple figure, the repetitive nature of painting so many identical tiny chicken parts proved to require an added level of concentration.